October 8, 2015 UPDATE

Click here for a round-up of news from Romania

Newsroom, 08.10.2015, 12:15

HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY-Today, Romania is a country that has
made significant progress in recognising and assuming responsibility for the
Holocaust, Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis said in Bucharest on Thursday, on
the National Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust. On the same
day, the Romanian president received in audience the Speaker of the Israeli
Parliament, the Knesset, Yuli-Yoel
Edelstein. During the meeting, he said Israel is Romania’s key partner in the
Middle East. The Speaker of the Knesset said Romania is the only country in the
region together with which Israel has maintained uninterrupted diplomatic
relations and that Bucharest is a pioneer, in terms of laws against Holocaust
denial. Statistical figures show between 250,000 and 300,000 Jews died during
and after their deportation from Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina to
Transdniester, in 1941. The Holocaust was recognised by the Romanian
authorities in 2004, based on the conclusions drawn by a Special Commission for
the Study of Deportations during WW II.

SECURITY– Romania
called on its NATO partner countries, meeting in Brussels on Thursday, to come
up with a series of measures to consolidate security in the Black Sea area,
which is achievable through the cooperation of the allied states. Romanian
defence minister, Mircea Dusa, has said the presence of the allied navy is
needed in the Black Sea maritime basin to ensure Euro-Atlantic security.
Another focal issue on the agenda of the NATO defence ministers was the
security situation in Afghanistan and Syria. Tensions mounted after Turkey
complained that Russian military aircraft violated its airspace. NATO Secretary
General, Jens Stoltenberg, has deemed Russia’s military activity in Syria as
alarming escalation and expressed NATO’s readiness to send troops to Turkey
to defend it. Jens Stoltenberg told a press conference that NATO will increase
its presence in Eastern Europe and is ready to cope with any challenge.

ANTI-MISSILE SHIELD-The United States, NATO and Romania are currently holding
consultations to make sure the base in Deveselu, southern Romania, is well
protected from several types of threats, including terrorist ones, the US
Assistant Secretary of State, Frank Rose has announced. He said the anti-missile
shield, elements of which have also been placed in Deveselu, is further
destined to block possible Iranian threats, because Tehran’s ballistic missile
program hasn’t been negotiated within the framework of the recent nuclear
agreement. Romanian foreign minister Bogdan Aurescu has explained the
anti-missile shield offers protection to Romania and is also meant to
discourage prospective attacks.

MIGRATION-
The EU interior ministers, gathered in Luxembourg on Thursday, agreed to take
measures to increase the number and step up the pace of repatriations of migrants
who haven’t received residence documents. The measures also include the arrest
of migrants suspected of hiding out before getting expelled. The approved
package of measures also provides for exerting pressure on the origin states to
accept back their citizens who have been denied the request to enter
Europe. In another move, before the
meeting, the European Commission approved the
allotment of an additional 17 million Euro aid for Serbia and Macedonia, in an
effort to help them overcome the refugee
crisis. 10 million Euros of this amount are meant
to consolidate capacities to take in and provide shelter to the refugees
and to tighten border control, whereas 7 million Euros are destined for providing humanitarian aid.

NOBEL PRIZE FOR LITERATURE-Belarusian
writer Svetlana Alexievich on Thursday won the 2015
Nobel Prize for Literature for her polyphonic writings, a monument to
suffering and courage in our time, the communiqué issued by the Swedish
Academy writes. Svetlana Alexievich’s books are described as a literary
chronicle of the emotional history of the Soviet and post-Soviet individual.
Last year, the Nobel for Literature went to French writer Patrick
Modiano, for the art of memory with which he has evoked the most ungraspable human
destinies and uncovered the life-world of the occupation. In
2009, the prize went to German writer of Romanian descent, Herta Muller, whose
writings dwell on life under communist dictatorship in Romania. On Monday, the
academy granted the prize for medicine, on Tuesday for physics and on Wednesday
the prize for chemistry. The winner of the Nobel Peace Prize will be announced
on Friday and that for economy on Monday.